By Edith Hancock
The European Commission plans to order Meta Platforms to reverse a policy that it says effectively bans rival artificial-intelligence chatbots from talking to users on its WhatsApp messaging platform as it advances an antitrust investigation into the company.
"The Commission intends to impose interim measures to prevent these policy changes from causing serious and irreparable harm on the market, subject to Meta's reply and rights of defence," the regulator said on Wednesday, adding that the injunction would be in place until it finishes its probe.
Meta announced an update of its WhatsApp business terms in October 2025 that effectively banned third-party general-purpose AI assistants from the platform from January this year, prompting scrutiny from antitrust authorities in countries such as Brazil and Italy.
The European Commission launched its own investigation in December. Officials said in February they are concerned that Meta could be abusing its dominant position in messaging apps by refusing other businesses access to WhatsApp.
Meta offered to let rival artificial-intelligence chatbots communicate with users on WhatsApp for a fee last month in an bid to ease the regulator's concerns, but EU officials said on Wednesday that the policy didn't change the commission's view that Meta appears to be abusing its dominant position and that it might harm competition in the AI assistant space.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said the commission is proposing to use its regulatory powers to enable some of the world's largest companies to use its WhatsApp Business product for free. "This means that a small bakery in France paying to use the service to take croissant orders will be picking up the tab for OpenAI," they said.
Write to Edith Hancock at edith.hancock@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-15-26 0926ET
